+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make Your Own Temperature Scale

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Differentiate between temperature and thermal energy. Your class will build a thermometer using simple materials and develop their own scale for measuring temperature. Discuss with your class and consider why engineers need to understand...
+
Lesson Plan
American Chemical Society

Matter on the Move

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Start this mini unit on matter out by demonstrating how food coloring behaves when placed in cold and in hot water. Then have the class experiment with warm water and soap film. Pupils will learn that an increase in thermal energy also...
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
Bonneville

Let's Build Our Wind and Solar Energy Toy

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Who says toys can't be educational? The fourth of five parts in the Solar Updraft Towers unit has scholars create toys that run on solar and wind energy. The devices need to be solar updraft towers that can be placed on a warm surface...
+
Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

Exploring Energy: Kinetic and Potential

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
The potential of the energy in the class is moving. The third segment in a six-part unit on energy provides a deeper understanding of kinetic and potential energy. Learners understand the relationship between mass, speed, and energy and...
+
Lesson Plan
American Chemical Society

M&M's in Different Temperatures

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Help your class come up with a procedure for comparing the dissolving rates of colored candy coating in different temperatures of water. If you are placing importance on controlled variables with your class, make sure that they use equal...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Steamship Portland: Where's the Energy?

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students examine how steamships operate. They describe the necessary energy conversions. They construct a model paddlewheel ship. They use rubber bands as examples of potential and kinetic energy as they unwind and set the models in motion.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Is Energy? Short Demos

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students engage in three short, hands-on, in-class demos which expand students' understand of energy. First, using peanuts and heat, students see how the human body burns food to make energy. Then, they create paper snake mobiles to...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Taking the Heat

For Teachers 5th - 10th
Students measure the heat absorbed by different materials and learn why engineers need to know how different materials story thermal energy when designing buildings. In this heat capacity lesson plan, students use a thermometer to...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Characteristics of Energy

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders view a video and create a KWL to identify energy sources. In this energy sources lesson, 4th graders explore the meaning of energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, thermal energy, radiant energy, and electrical energy....
+
Lesson Plan
American Chemical Society

Changing the Density of a Liquid - Heating and Cooling

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
During a unit on density, pupils ponder whether or not temperature affects this property. By carefully inserting blue cold water and yellow hot water into a room-temperature sample, they will see the answer. Make sure to have done the...
+
Lesson Plan
US Department of Energy

Geothermal Energy

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
With Earth Day quickly approaching, as well as many science fairs, why not challenge your class to investigate geothermal energy or other renewable energy resources? There are five driving questions explored in depth here, as well as...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Good Vibrations Remote Sensing data Collection: Thermal Emission Spectrometer

For Teachers 4th - 8th
The Mars Global Surveyor spent two years creating a mineral map of the planet Mars using thermal emission spectrometry. To help young astronomers understand this remote sensing instrument, have them simulate how data is collected and...
+
Lesson Plan
University of Tennessee

Potential Energy

For Students 5th - 7th
Did you know a tennis ball has potential? Collaborative groups analyze the potential energy of a tennis ball based on its height. They measure its starting height and the height after its first bounce. Using a graphical analysis, they...
+
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

An Energy Mix: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
What did the windmill say about renewable energy? I'm a BIG fan! Lesson three in the series of 12 has classes discuss potential and kinetic energy and then, in pairs, they complete a web quest over the different types of energy...
+
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Power Pellets! Nuclear Energy in the United States

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the energy generated in the United States. The seventh activity in the series of 12 tackles nuclear power. After sharing what they know about nuclear energy, scholars complete a WebQuest make a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where's the Energy

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students research energy conversions. For this energy lesson, students describe the basic operation of a steam engine.  They explain the energy conversions in the steam engine's operation. 
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Energy Transfer in Musical Instruments

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students create unique sounds using different instruments.  In this energy lesson, students read and define several vocabulary terms such as heat, energy transfer and thermal equilibrium.  Students utilize several household objects to...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Electric Current Produces Energy

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders are introduced to the concept of electric currents. In groups, they develop their own game board to test different circuits to determine if they are complete. They record their observations of the energy transfer between...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Conservation of Energy

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders identify situations in which kinetic and potential energy are exchanged and identify the direction of energy transfer using marbles and flexible foam track. They observe how the marbles move spontaneously when released...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

TE Lesson: Energy Transfer in Musical Instruments

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students study concepts of energy and energy transfer. They look at how these concepts apply to musical instruments. They study the law of conservation of energy. They use the concepts studied in the lesson plan to design a musical...
+
Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

Solar Power

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Elementary schoolers discover how engineers use solar energy to heat buildings. They take a close look at some of the materials used: sand, salt, water, and shredded paper and evaluate the efficiency of each material. An incredible...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Hilly Ride

For Teachers 5th
Different types of energy are the focus of this science resource. Learners identify situations in which kinetic and potential energy are exchanged. They conduct an in-class inquiry which leads them to discover that there is a limit to...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Hot Is It?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Discuss the difference between conduction, convection and radiation of thermal energy, and complete activities with your class by investigating the difference between temperature, thermal energy and the heat capacity of different materials.
+
Lesson Plan
Clarkson University

Forms, States, and Conversions

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Searching for a way to integrate multiple concepts of energy conversion while captivating a middle school audience? This activity presents topics related to potential and kinetic energy and offers the ability to allow pupil interaction. 

Other popular searches